Texas sheriff refuses to turn over jailhouse video after death of gay man

theGrio REPORT - A 32-year-old gay man died in a Texas jail cell, and his family is demanding answers.

Aug 2, 2015

A 32-year-old gay man died in a Texas jail cell, and his family is demanding answers.

Jesse Jacobs turned himself in to a Galveston jail over a DUI sentence. He was voluntarily going in for the 30-day sentence but hoped that, with good behavior, he would be allowed to leave after 12 days.

However, when he was admitted to the jail, Jacobs was denied the Xanax that he had been taking for years in order to treat a severe anxiety disorder, and within a week, he began to have seizures as part of his withdrawal symptoms from the Xanax.

He was admitted to a hospital and died within 24 hours of being admitted. Sheriff Henry Trochesset insisted that Jacobs died of natural causes, but the family disagrees and is clamoring for the sheriff to release jailhouse video of what really happened.

“I’m angry,” says Jacobs’ father, also named Jesse. “Because as far as I’m concerned, they executed my son just as sure as if they put a gun to his head and pull the trigger.”

“Our son was concerned that he was not going to receive his medication,” Diane Jacobs, his mother, said. “He told us, ‘Mom what will happen, if I don’t receive this?’”

County jail doctors prescribed Jacobs a different medication than his prescribed Xanax, according to the jail records.

“Whatever the doctor, the internal doctor said he was prescribed, was what he was given,” said Sheriff Trochesset. “Individuals come into the jail all the time. Some of them are taking medications that they shouldn’t be, or they say they’re suppose to be on certain medications.”